"He demanded an apology in a tweet, and he also demanded that the Republican Party repudiate me.

"I just tweeted back and said that's the kind of request that he should make eye-to-eye and man-to-man."

The lawmakers' bitter wordplay ignited last Friday when King appeared on Boston Herald Radio and implied that some American Jews put being a Democrat before being Jewish.

"I don't understand how Jews in America can be Democrats first and Jewish second and support Israel along the line of just following their president," King said about congressional Democrats who skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Capitol Hill speech about Iran's nuclear threat.

Israel, who did attend Netanyahu's speech earlier this month, responded on Twitter: "I don't need Congressman Steve King questioning my religion or my politics. I demand an apology from him & repudiation from GOP. #dangerous."

Using Twitter himself, King ripped Israel for not speaking to him in person.

Not to be outdone, Israel sarcastically called King a "Talmudic scholar." He added that King was "mashugana" — Yiddish for "crazy" — and advised him to "look it up."

King told host Steve Malzberg:

"Truthfully, I asked a rhetorical question. I wasn't passing judgment. I just said I don't know how you can be Jewish in America and be a Democrat first and be Jewish second.

"Because I see a lot of left-wing Jews that are lining themselves up with President Obama, a good number of them took a walk on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before the joint session of Congress.

"But also I'm seeing that half around the country. I would think the affinity would be strong enough to at least want Israel to survive, and you can't think about survival of Israel if you can accept an idea of an Iranian nuclear capability."

Netanyahu's appearance before Congress — which came at the invitation of House Speaker John Boehner — roiled the White House, which was not advised on the matter.